Since the beginning of the year, when talk of a recession was first heard, Congress has been debating whether or to extend unemployment insurance (UI) benefits by 13 weeks -- as it has done during every single recession, with one exception, for the past 50 years.

By and large, the Bureau of Economic Analysts (BEA) at the Department of Commerce announced this morning an estimated GDP figure for the first quarter of 2008 of 0.6 percent -- the exact same figure as the last quarter of 2007 -- which pushes us back from the brink of "official" economic recession, though we are by no means out of the woods. The BEA report includes this summary analysis:

Fiscal Policy Discourse in the Presidential Campaign Is it discouraging or inconsequential that all of the three leading presidential candidates have been espousing inchoate fiscal policy from the stump, making claims sometimes divorced from reality, offering precious little to address the country's ailing fiscal condition?

Yesterday the House passed a bill that would stop the Bush administration from going forward with several regulations intended to cut Medicaid services. The administration developed the regulations under the guise of "fiscal integrity," arguing state Medicaid programs are using loopholes to inappropriately claim federal funds. Bush has threatened to veto the bill. Fortunately, the bill passed the House in a 349-62 vote which, if the margin holds, would be enough to override a veto. State governments also support the bill. According to the Associated Press, "The governors of all 50 states…oppose the rules." If all this bipartisanship and widespread agreement make you uncomfortable, fear not — the U.S. Senate is on the case.